Nareg Seferian The Clash of Turkish and ARMENİAN NARRATİVES

THE CLASH OF TURKISH AND ARMENIAN

NARRATIVES:

THE IMPERATIVE FOR A COMPREHENSIVE AND

NUANCED PUBLIC MEMORY

 

NAREG SEFERIAN

May 2017

This publication was made possible thanks to the support of the Turkey-Armenia Fellowship Scheme established

by the Hrant Dink Foundation within the framework of the program Support to the Armenia-Turkey Normalisation

Process – Stage II financed by the European Union.

Nareg Seferian is an independent researcher. His writings can be read at naregseferian.com.

About Istanbul Policy Center

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For over a decade, IPC has provided decision makers, opinion leaders, and other major stakeholders with objec-

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researchers through its various programs.

 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ..............................................................................................................................................4

INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................................................................6

NARRATIVE AND NARRATIVE THEORY................................................................................................................. 7

METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH ..............................................................................................................................8

THE TURKISH NARRATIVE .....................................................................................................................................10

THE ARMENIAN NARRATIVE ................................................................................................................................. 13

OBSERVATIONS AND DISCUSSION ........................................................................................................................ 17

Overlap 1: Nationalism as Worldview .......................................................................................................... 17

Overlap 2: Don’t Trust the West ................................................................................................................... 17

Part-Overlap, Part-Mirroring: Nationalist Perceptions of Self and Other ............................................. 18

Mirroring 1: Noticeable Gaps ........................................................................................................................ 19

Mirroring 2: Shifts at Variance .................................................................................................................... 20

Narrative Timeline and Structure ...............................................................................................................22

Analogy with Post-Colonial Relations .........................................................................................................22

Analogy with Indigenous Populations .........................................................................................................22

Analogies and Comparisons with Other Sets of Narratives ......................................................................23

Archives ...........................................................................................................................................................23

Demographics ................................................................................................................................................23

Diversity of Turkish and Armenian Attitudes at the Time .......................................................................24

Common Culture ............................................................................................................................................24

“Historical Justice” .......................................................................................................................................24

Legal Aspects ..................................................................................................................................................25

CONCLUSION: TOWARDS A COMPREHENSIVE AND NUANCED PUBLIC MEMORY ................................26

Public Memory and 1915 ...............................................................................................................................26

Asymmetrical Attitudes in the Two Societies .............................................................................................27

The Two States as the Ultimate Parties ......................................................................................................27

Unclear Reciprocal Demands for Closure on 1915 .....................................................................................28

Prospective Elements in a Shared Narrative Scenario ..............................................................................28

Non-Violent Nationalism ....................................................................................................................... 28

Western Non-Intervention...................................................................................................................... 28

Less Focus on the Word “Genocide” ....................................................................................................... 29

Greater Public Acknowledgement of Balkans and Caucasus Muslim Experience and

Non-Armenian Minority Experience .................................................................................................... 29

Reassessing Figures and Phenomena .................................................................................................... 29

Future Public Commemorations ............................................................................................................ 30

Prospective “Co-habiting, even if Conflicting Narratives” Scenario ...................................................... 30

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...........................................................................................................................................32

APPENDIX – INTERVIEWEES ..................................................................................................................................33